Calming Anxiety | Guided Meditation, Sleep Hypnosis & Panic Attack Relief

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 13: Fixing the Nets, by Arthur Conan Doyle — A Calming Bedtime Story for Sleep & Insomnia | Books at Bedtime

 

A calming bedtime story to help you fall asleep — Chapter 13 of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, read slowly and softly for anyone lying awake with a busy mind.

 

Tonight the net begins to close. Sherlock Holmes returns to Baskerville Hall, and over a late supper he notices something in an old family portrait on the wall — a face beneath a plumed hat and curling love-locks that he has seen somewhere far more recently. From that single quiet observation, the whole tangled case begins to draw together.

 

Holmes and Watson leave for Coombe Tracey, call upon Mrs Laura Lyons, and lay the last of the traps. Lestrade arrives on the evening express. And Sir Henry is asked to do the one thing he has been warned against all along — to walk home alone across the moor.

 

This is a slow, unhurried reading. There is no need to follow the plot, and no need to reach the end. Let the rhythm of the Victorian prose and the hush of Dartmoor at night do the work while your body settles. If you drift off in the first few minutes, that is exactly what this is for.

 

Books at Bedtime is the sleep story series from Calming Anxiety, hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett — alongside Coffee Break for the Soul and the daily ten-minute guided meditations. If classic audiobooks help you sleep, this series is written for those long, wakeful hours.

 

You can take the whole library with you — download Anchored on iOS. Access over 3,000 searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the small hours. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store today: https://apps.apple.com

 

If this reading helped you sleep, please share it with someone who lies awake, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts — it is the single kindest thing you can do for a small independent show.

 

Sleep well. And until tomorrow …be kind.

 

 

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Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Start your day by reconnecting with your inner sense of peace. In this episode of Calming Anxiety, we explore a gentle guided visualization designed to help you tap into a "golden feeling" of well-being, anytime you need it. Whether you are navigating daily stress or simply seeking a moment of groundedness, this practice will help you soften your shoulders, release tension, and shift your perspective toward lightness and possibility. Join Martin, clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic, as he guides you through a session of self-compassion and mental restoration.

Ready to take your practice further? Download the Anchored app for iOS to support your journey toward lasting calm and anxiety management.Episode Chapters
00:00 – Welcome and Arrival: Settling into your space
01:06 – Guided Visualization: The warm golden light
03:53 – Affirmations for self-worth and peace
08:21 – Daily Caring Tips for a happier life
09:08 – Re-orienting and closing the session
Daily Affirmations
"I am allowed to feel good—not when everything is perfect, but right now."
"Good things are already on their way to me."
"I bring something to this world that no one else can."
"Today, I choose lightness."
"I am grateful, and gratitude feels wonderful."
"I am well, I am home, and today is full of possibility."
3 Daily Caring Tips
Mirror Appreciation: When you see yourself in the mirror, offer a genuine smile and love the reflection—honor all that you are.
Practice Forgiveness: Release the weight of past mistakes; learn from them, forgive yourself, and step forward into the present.
Embrace Your Uniqueness: Recognize your worth, celebrate your individuality, and enjoy being exactly who you are.
Remember to visit calminganxiety.fm for more resources and our full Anxiety Breaker course. Smile often, and be kind.

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https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist

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 Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

Backing Music: Chris Collins

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Affiliate links to the gear I use the items that give me a more tranquil life.

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Items I use for a more relaxed way of life :)
Organic Pure Hemp CBD Capsules - https://amzn.to/3

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Sleep Story for Insomnia — The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 12: Death on the Moor | A Sherlock Holmes Bedtime Audiobook | Books at Bedtime

 

A sleep story for insomnia, read slowly and softly for anyone lying awake in the small hours. This is Chapter 12 of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — Death on the Moor — narrated for Books at Bedtime by Martin Hewlett, clinical hypnotherapist, former frontline paramedic and host of Calming Anxiety.

 

Tonight the mist settles low over the moor and the light drains slowly out of the western sky. Watson sits alone in a stone hut among the ancient dwellings, waiting in the dark for a stranger to return. A step on the gravel. A voice he knows better than any other in the world. And Sherlock Holmes, thin and weathered and quietly amused, is sitting on a stone outside the door.

 

What follows is a long, low-voiced conversation in the twilight — two friends piecing a puzzle together while the chill comes down and the stars come out over Dartmoor. And then, far off across the shadowy plain, a cry. A prolonged yell of horror that turns the blood to ice. The deep, muttered rumble of something running in the darkness. A stumbling chase over broken ground, gorse and boulders and the moon rising behind them. And a shape lying still against the silver stones.

 

This is one of the most atmospheric chapters in all of Sherlock Holmes — night air, granite, moonlight and mist — and it is read here at a deliberately unhurried pace, with long pauses and a lowered voice, so that the story can carry you down into sleep rather than keep you up.

 

You do not need to follow the plot. You do not need to remember a single name. Let the words blur at the edges. Let the moor go quiet. If you drift off long before Holmes and Watson reach the gates of Baskerville Hall, that is exactly what this recording is for — the story will still be here tomorrow night.

 

Best listened to lying down, in the dark, with the volume low.

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles was first published in 1902 and is in the public domain.

 

Books at Bedtime sits alongside the daily ten-minute guided meditations of Calming Anxiety and the reflections of Coffee Break for the Soul — a free library for anxiety relief, insomnia, overthinking and the long nights.

 

You can also take the whole library with you and download Anchored on iOS. Searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and a built-in nightlight for the small hours. 👉 Download Anchored on the App Store today: https://apps.apple.com

 

Sleep well, my friend. And in everything, be kind.

 

 

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Support the Show:

 

Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support

 

Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety

 

Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist

 

Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Panic Attack Relief — Mindful Breathing to Calm a Racing Chest | 10-Minute Guided Meditation with the Physiological Sigh

 

Panic attack relief starts with one breath — and this ten-minute guided meditation gives you the fastest one there is. If your breathing has gone high and shallow, if you are trying to take a deep breath and it keeps stopping halfway, this session is built for exactly that moment.

 

Hosted by clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett, today's practice is about mindful breathing and one named technique: the physiological sigh. Two breaths in through the nose, a short sip of air stacked on top, then one long, slow release. It is the quickest way we know of to bring a heart rate down in real time, and it is the breath Martin coached people through on the front line.

 

From there you are guided into stillness beside water at dusk — the setting sun, the ripples and reflections on the lake — while five gentle affirmations settle the nervous system and remind you that a panic attack cannot outlast a long, slow breath out.

 

Whether you are riding out a wave of anxiety right now, managing daily stress, or looking for a breathwork practice you can return to every morning, this is anxiety relief you can carry with you and use anywhere.

 

You are not broken. You are not in danger. Your breathing has simply got ahead of you — and it can be brought back.

 

⏱️ Time Chapters

 

* 00:00 – Your breathing has got ahead of you

* 01:06 – Welcome to Calming Anxiety

* 01:25 – Anchored arrives on iOS this Thursday

* 01:45 – Instant Calm: your always-on panic attack session

* 02:18 – Settling in

* 02:32 – The physiological sigh explained

* 02:50 – Guided breathing, three rounds

* 04:54 – Letting the words land

* 05:23 – Today's affirmations

* 06:22 – Stillness by the lake at dusk

* 06:51 – Affirmations, second pass

* 08:08 – Your three daily caring tips

* 08:58 – Coming back into the room

* 09:37 – Anchored, sharing, and the sign-off

 

🌿 Today's Gentle Affirmations

 

Let these land. You don't have to believe them — just let them be.

 

* Every breath out is stress leaving my body.

* I do not have to fight a panic attack. I can breathe it out.

* My out breath is longer than my worrying and it is stronger.

* I let this exhale carry the whole day out of my shoulders.

* A panic attack cannot outlast a long, slow breath out.

 

💡 3 Daily Caring Tips

 

1. Rehearse it while you're calm. Practise the physiological sigh twice today while you are calm — once mid-morning, once mid-afternoon — so your body already knows the road before you ever need it in panic.

 

2. Breathe out before you reply. Before you answer any message that makes your stomach drop, put the phone down and take one long breath out first.

 

3. Five slow breaths out at bedtime. Tonight, before sleep, rest one hand on your lower ribs and count five slow breaths out — not in, just out.

 

📱 Take Calming Anxiety With You Anywhere

 

This Thursday, Anchored arrives on iOS — with Android following next month. Everything you hear here, in one calm place: thousands of searchable, offline-ready audio sessions, sleep stories with Books at Bedtime, and built-in nightlight features for the small hours.

 

The first thing to find when you open it is Instant Calm — a focused panic attack session that sits permanently in the same place, works offline as many times as you need it, and needs no subscription. Because when you actually need it, you will not be in a state to go searching for it.

 

If these ten minutes helped you today, please share this episode with one person who breathes the way you were breathing at the start of it, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It costs you nothing and it genuinely changes someone's day.

 

I'll be right here with you again tomorrow, and every day for as long as I can.

 

And in everything, my friend… be kind.

 

 

👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now!

 

Support the Show:

 

Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support

 

Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety

 

Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist

 

Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.

Sleep Story for Insomnia — The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 11: The Man on the Tor | Arthur Conan Doyle | Books at Bedtime

 

A long, slow bedtime story for sleep and insomnia. Tonight, Chapter 11 of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, read aloud by Martin Hewlett — clinical hypnotherapist, former paramedic, and host of the Calming Anxiety podcast.

 

It is the 18th of October, and Dr Watson finally has two threads to pull. A name behind the initials L. L. And a stranger living somewhere among the stone huts on the hillside.

 

He drives to Coombe Tracey to sit across from Laura Lyons and ask her, gently at first and then not gently at all, about a letter that was burned but not quite burned enough.

 

On the road home he is waylaid by old Frankland, flushed with victory and wine, who takes Watson up to his roof, sets his eye to a telescope, and shows him a small figure carrying a bundle across the empty moor.

 

And so the sun goes down over the great Grimpen Mire, gold on one slope and grey shadow on the other, while Watson sits waiting in the dark of a stone hut for its tenant to come home. When the footsteps finally arrive, the voice that speaks is one he knows better than any voice in the world.

 

This is unhurried, low-stimulation listening built for a mind that will not switch off. No sudden music, no startle, no urgency in the telling. Just a steady voice, a Victorian moor, and thirty minutes of somewhere else to be.

 

If sleep comes before Watson lights his cigarette, that is exactly as it should be. You are not expected to reach the end.

 

Best listened to lying down, with the lights out and the volume set a shade lower than feels right.

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was first published in 1902 and is in the public domain.

 

Books at Bedtime is part of the Calming Anxiety family of shows, alongside the daily 10-minute guided meditation and Coffee Break for the Soul. New sleep stories, guided meditations and clinical hypnotherapy sessions arrive every week.

 

Anchored, the companion app to Calming Anxiety, arrives on iOS on the 13th of August 2026 — with a dedicated Books at Bedtime section, offline listening for the nights the signal drops, and a built-in nightlight for the small hours.

 

If this reading helped you sleep, please pass it to someone who lies awake, and leave a 30-second rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It is the single kindest thing you can do to help another tired person find us.

 

Sleep well… and be kind.

 

 

👉 Click to subscribe and unlock ad-free episodes now!

 

Support the Show:

 

Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy Calming Anxiety without ads at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/calming-anxiety--4110266/support

 

Buy Me a Coffee: Support hosting costs at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/calminganxiety

 

Newsletter: Subscribe on Substack at https://calminganxietypodcast.substack.com/?r=6zm0sc&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist

 

Rate & Review: Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners!

 

YouTube: Watch all episodes at https://www.youtube.com/c/calminganxiety?sub_confirmation=1

 

Social Media Support: For younger listeners struggling with social media stress, visit https://www.icanhelp.net/

 

Music: All music by Chris Collins

Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.